This article is part of our Ball Watching series.
The 2014/15 FPL season is over. Hull City, the Rotowire Fantasy Soccer podcast darlings at the beginning of the season, are now relegated and fans of the Premier League will have to adjust the color on their TV sets when the Canaries come calling after their promotion Monday. Rather than just look back at Gameweek 38, which did see some interesting storylines, such as Loic Remy scoring twice and Sergio Aguero securing the golden boot, let's take a look back at the season overall and see what we've learned.:
The elite forwards are elite, but the value lies in the bargain bin.
Diego Costa started the year blazing hot with nine goals in the first seven games, but only managed three goals in seven appearances from Gameweek 23 until the rest of the season. Injuries and suspensions played their part, but every "elite" forward hit a dry spell at some point. Aguero netted 14 goals in his first 14 appearances, but after his December injury, the Argentine striker only regained his form near the end of the season. Unlike Costa, however, the Manchester City talisman also tallied an impressive ten assists to end the year as the highest scoring forward (in the Premier League's official game) and the second highest scoring player overall behind Costa's teammate and Barclays Premier League Player of the Year Eden Hazard.
In the bargain bin, players like Harry Kane (21 goals, four assists) did not even start the season as Spurs' No. 1 striker option. Newly promoted sides also provided tons of FPL value: QPR's Charlie Austin netted 18 times, Danny Ings contributed to 15 of relegated Burnley's 28 league goals, and Leicester's attacking duo of Jamie Vardy and Leonardo Ulloa each provided double-digit returns, with the former assisting 12 times and the latter scoring 11 goals. These are similar numbers to significantly higher priced options like Wayne Rooney (12 goals and five assists), Robin van Persie (10 goals and two assists) and Olivier Giroud (14 goals and three assists).
Midfield Dominance
In the midfield, the two top options heading into next season were clearly Hazard (14 goals and nine assists) and Alexis Sanchez (16 goals and eight assists). Other than those two, however, there is a lot to be desired from FPL midfielders. Cesc Fabregas led the Premier League with 18 assists, which in itself is impressive, but the Spaniard compiled only five of those in 2015, and the Chelsea midfield will only get more crowded next season. Matching that kind of production in 2015/16 is unlikely. To sum up the disappointment among FPL midfielders, Angel Di Maria's 10 assists only took the Argentine 1,645 minutes. In comparison, Santi Carzola's 11 assists took him 2,992 minutes. Di Maria's season was such a disappointment to Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal that the Dutch manager is rumored to be selling the former Real Madrid winger to PSG in the summer, leaving FPL players with one fewer option going into next season.
There were hot streaks from the bargain bin likes of Leicester's Marc Albrighton (two goals and three assists in only 10 appearances), QPR's Matthew Phillips (three goals and eight assists), Stoke pair Victor Moses (three goals and three assists) and Charlie Adam (seven goals and one assist), and Swansea's Jefferson Montero (one goal and seven assists), but none showed any consistency to render excitement in 2015/16 and Phillips got relegated with QPR and may not even be an option.
Interesting midfielder facts that FPL owners should be aware of:
1. West Brom's Chris Brunt finished with 10 assists. As a set piece taker for a Tony Pulis-led team, the Northern Ireland international should continue to be a factor going into next season, but he is assist dependent for most FPL scoring systems.
2. The Erik Lamela-to-Nacer Chadli connection was tied for second best in the Premier League, with the Argentine assisting four of the Belgian's goals. Only Cesc Fabregas to Diego Costa yielded more goals (six). Further, Chadli assisted four of Harry Kane's goals. No where on this list was the highest-priced Spurs midfielder, Christian Eriksen.
3. Mesut Ozil's 3.1 key passes per 90 minutes only led to five assists. That's a ridiculously low assist output considering his involvement in the attack. Arsenal's record-signing should see a much higher output next season if he maintains that pace.
Clean Sheets are Tougher to Come By
Defenders and goalkeepers continue to be clean-sheet dependent, but the shutout is getting less predictable each season. The Golden Glove winner for most clean sheets among goalkeepers has seen a steady decline over the past decade. Petr Cech's and Edwin Van Der Sar's 21 clean sheets in 2004/05 and 2008/09, respectively, are the most in the past decade, and Joe Hart's 14 clean sheets were enough for the Golden Glove this year. Because of this, the defender position is seeing fewer and fewer clean sheets and the likes of Leighton Baines and Branislav Ivanovic are going to see a decline in value as they reach the other side of 30. Baines, particularly, has also seen his penalty taking duties all but dissipate. Interesting note: Joe Hart has won the Golden Glove in four of the past five seasons.
